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Three years since the release of their second album ‘The Repulsion Box’, the Glasgow-based band take the Golden Voice stage Saturday evening, opening up with a basic drumbeat. This is the band that refuses to follow protocol as new album ‘Mirror Mirror’ promises to deliver. With stark vocals from Adele and echoes spreading their other-worldly harmonies and atmosphere under the canopy, the audience stand expectant and enthralled., their latent musicality and energies fizzing under the silence before the crashing guitars awaken. Furious poles of tunes are met with howls of applause. ‘Sons and Daughters’ have been grafting away for a decade now but have recently stepped into a new era of their own with new single ‘Breaking Fun’ ‘s banging percussions and Adele’s raking voice. Think Kate Bush meets Talking Heads in a drum shop. Each song from the new album seems to work at building up and then defying expectations. The new single does so by starting off on the accelerator, a furious row of a song, before losing power and dragging out to a wailing chord at the end. As the crowd swells during the performance, it is clear such musical intelligence is not wasted.

Strawberry Ocean Sea

This Scottish five piece band, birthed in Glasgow, has already been strongly tipped by XFM’s Jim Gellatly. In a radical departure from the lo-fi punk outfits still leftover from the Libertine craze, Strawberry Ocean Sea introduces a rush of fully-fledged songs and warm jubilant rushes of anthems. Appropriately named, the music is based on sweet simple melodies and wide sweeping structures – a definitive move for bassist Ritchie Bell, previously of punk-pop three piece, Hi 5 Alive. The songs are bursts of hope and sadness as in ‘Down by The River’ with the lyrics: ‘’I'm sick of having nothing / But sometimes nothings all you need / It gives you the will to survive /
The need to succeed’ and stand-out reassuring hug of a tune ‘Today’s The Day’. With CDs already mixed and touring dates with Glasvegas, Strawberry Ocean Sea are causing ripples at the very least and gained the biggest crowd at Rock and Roll Circus – despite being first up.